Dimension Eyes Scream 4 Replacement Victims. Er, I mean, Characters.

With “Scream 4″ all set to go before the cameras as early as July for a April 15, 2011 release, and with everyone back and ready — including director Wes Craven, screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and original stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox — Dimension Films has now begun looking at actors to populate the film, the first of a planned trilogy that will introduce a new set of nubile young ladies to battle the never-say-die Ghostface killer.

Heat Vision reports that Dimension Films is already in negotiations with Lake Bell (above) to land one of the parts, and offers have gone out to lovely genre lasses Hayden Panettiere (late of the canceled “Heroes”) and “Twilight” actress Ashley Greene to join in on the fun. Also in the running, Rory Culkin as one of the guys.

The big juicy role is being offered to Greene to play Jill, the cousin of Neve Campbell’s Sidney character, who would essentially take over Sidney’s role once, we presume, Sid gets offed by Ghostface. (I’m just guessing here, of course, but how else would they “pass the baton” unless they killed off the franchise’s central character? You can’t really keep Sid around for future sequels and not use her, could you?)

Panettiere, meanwhile, would play Jill’s nerdy movie best friend, cause when you think “nerdy film geek best friend” you of course immediately think Panettiere (below). Hey, as long as her character doesn’t whine incessantly about “wanting to be normal”, I’m cool with it. Culkin, meanwhile, would play Greene’s love interest.

As for Lake Bell, who would play the adult in the group — a former high school acquaintance of Sidney Prescott, who is now a cop. That comes in handy when a guy with a big knife is chasing you.